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Welcome to Close Call Sports. CCS objectively tracks and analyzes close and controversial calls in sport, with great regard for the rules and spirit of the game. Developed from The Left Field Corner: MLB Umpire Ejection Fantasy League (UEFL), whose purpose is to objectively track and analyze umpire ejections, video instant replay reviews and their corresponding calls, with great regard for the rules and spirit of the game.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Ejections 003, 004, 005, 006: Sam Holbrook (1, 2, 3, 4)

Brawl: HP Umpire Sam Holbrook ejected Padres left fielder Carlos Quentin and Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke, third baseman Jerry Hairston and center fielder Matt Kemp for fighting in the bottom of the 6th inning of the Dodgers-Padres game. With none out and none on, Quentin took a 3-2 fastball from Greinke for a hit

Dodgers and Padres brawl at Petco Park following a HBP

by pitch. Immediately following the 3-2 HBP, Quentin charged the mound, throwing Greinke to the ground as benches cleared. In the aftermath of the first altercation, trainers examined Greinke's shoulder; Greinke left the game due to such injuries sustained during the fracas with Quentin, Holbrook confirmed after the game that the Dodgers pitcher had been ejected. Hairston was ejected for subsequently charging the Padres dugout and inciting a secondary bench-clearing incident. Replays indicate the pitch was located at the elbows, the call is irrecusable. At the time of the ejection, the Dodgers were leading, 2-1. The Dodgers ultimately won the contest, 3-2.

These are the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th ejections of 2013.
These are the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th player ejections of 2013.
Prior to his ejection, Quentin was 0-2 in the contest.
Prior to his ejection, Kemp was 1-3 in the contest.
Prior to his ejection, Greinke's line read 5 IP, 1 ER. After his ejection, Quentin's replacement scored for 2 ER.
The Dodgers are tied for the MLB ejection lead with two, while San Diego is in third place with one.

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Crew chief sam holbrook, what a freaking joke. Nice way to control the game. And if it's true that Mr. Infield Fly himself ejected Greinke for defending himself from a roid-raged St. Quentin, he's more of an idiot than I thought. Sam, you made a great call in Atlanta on the fly ball, but you royally f*ed up this fight at Petco Park. Get Joe West in here, he'd take care of business.

Dodgers feed references some pitch that went over Matt Kemp's head earlier in the game. Anyone who watched the game know about that at all? I can't figure out whose stupider - Greinke for an intent HBP, though it doesn't appear anyone in their right mind thought it was intentional (competitive one-run game) or Quentin for assuming the pitch at his shoulder was a bean ball.

And unbelievably, Don Mattingly played peacemaker and was not in fact ejected!

Pitch was barely inside but over Kemp's head. Wasn't really that big of a deal, but Kemp sold it hard and may have believed it was worse than it was. And If Greinke intentionally hit him, why would he wait till the 3-2 pitch to do it?

I can think of a reason why a pitcher would wait for a full count to hit someone: Because everyone will assume he didn't hit him because it was a full count. But I don't think this was intentional either.

I think they retracted the Greinke ejection. I love Vin Scully, who figured out within about 30 seconds that Greinke left due to injury and NOT because he was ejected, since replacement Chris Capuano got unlimited time to warm up, replacing an injured, not ejected, player.

Because if you ejected everyone involved in the fight there wouldn't be anyone left to play the game. The umpires have to pick and choose and they probably judged that Ellis' tackle was intended to restrain Quentin.

"The guy basically dives into the plate and, on a 2-1 game, we're trying to hit him on a 3-and-2 pitch?" Mattingly said on TV afterward. "It's just stupid is what it is. He should not play a game before Greinke can pitch."

I thought this crew did an excellent job sorting this out. A catcher's job when someone charges the mound is to protect his pitcher..... Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Quentin charges and well we know the rest. I actually think Sam will make an excellent CC and the sooner the better. It's the little things that make me think so. EXAMPLE: Notice that after the brawl he talks to each manager individually. May seem like nothing to the average eye but this makes sure that the managers do not exchange any words comments .... ZIP.... preventative umpiring. Well I think we can say now the season is officially underway.... And by the way can someone please tell me when Holbrook has Grienke.... Fireworks seem to go off whenever these 2 are around each other!

So Quentin interprets a 3-2 pitch inside at the arms on an at bat that featured breaking balls low or away as an intent bean ball... right. And then you have 3 Dodgers ejected to one Padre in Quentin. Yeah, sure.

I think the umps got it right. Quentin needs a lot more than 3 games here...there was simply no reason to charge the mound!Greinke, unfortunately, didn't use his head. When guys make 10s of millions to play one of every 5 games, they have to be smart. Unfortunately, he wasn't and got hurt. IF he was completely innocent, I would agree with Mattingly and suspend Quentin until Grienke comes back (maybe even longer); but Greinke chose not to be innocent.Colin Cowherd was right this morning on ESPN; Greinke's job is to step back and let the catcher (with all the gear) get to the batter first.

I don't understand people saying this shows Holbrook is not Crew Chief material? I don't see what he did wrong here. I am not even the biggest Holbrook fan myself. I think he is a good Umpire but a little overrated by the MLB, he is not good enough to have worked 4 CC's and 1 WS in the last 5 years. But this does not prove anything about his CC potential. Umpires are told not to get in the middle of brawls but rather stand by the melee and observe what is going on and take down names and numbers of players who should be ejected and that is exactly what the crew did. Watch any MLB brawl and the Umpires will almost always act the same way Holbrook and company did. The correct 4 people were ejected. Queintin for charging the mound, Greinke for baiting Queintin and participating in the fight, Hairston for reigniting the fight after it was seemingly over and Kemp for being completely out of control throughout the entire thing. You could have maybe ejected John Baker who also attempted to reignite the fight by taunting Greinke from the Padres dugout. That is who Hairston was going after. But it is hard to get everybody and all in all the crew did what they could.

I also agree with tmac on one point. This is certainly not something that seems like a big deal but alking to Mattingly and Bud seperately was brilliant. Especially considering Don Mattingly and his usual moronic actions. If you get him next to Bud Black he is probably going to act like a bafoon and it is possible things would have gotten worse.

Him and Rob Drake have both been missing from that crew all season. Hopefully they are OK. We also have not seen Gary Cederstrom, Brian gorman or Brian Runge at all this season. With Runge I have a feeling it is the same reason he missed the end of last season and he has missed a ton of time over the last 4-5 years but Cederstrom and Gorman never miss games at all so I am surprised to see them gone.

On the other hand we have seen the same 6 Call-ups these last 2 weeks. Conroy, Blaser, Baker, Tumpane, Fagan and Muchlinski. While this obviosuly isn't the tell all that these will be the next ones hired it shows the MLB is confident in them that they will work at the beginning of the season. Also notice Reyburn, Estabrook and Campos have not been used yet.

I agree with the review of situation handling. In fact, I would say they did a great job of getting the teams off the field and going toward the benches to explain the outcomes after the ejections. Did a great job of calming the situation down.